The man convicted of murdering headmaster Philip Lawrence has not been released from prison, contrary to reports that he had, sources said.

Learco Chindamo, 27, is serving a life sentence after being found guilty of fatally stabbing the father-of-four outside his school in Maida Vale, west London, in December 1995.

Reports that he had been released on parole from Ford Open Prison in West Sussex were not true, the source said.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said they could not confirm which, if any, prison Chindamo was in.

She said: "We do not comment on individual cases."

Italian-born Chindamo, who was 15 at the time of the killing, was ordered to be detained indefinitely after being found guilty of Mr Lawrence's murder and was given a 12-year minimum tariff.

In August last year an immigration tribunal ruled he should be allowed to stay in Britain after serving his sentence.

Mr Lawrence's widow, Frances, reacted angrily to the decision as she said she had always been given the impression he would be deported to his native Italy after leaving jail.

She criticised the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal's ruling, saying the Human Rights Act was supposed to have granted her husband the right to life but instead worked in the "best interest" of his killer.

Papers from the legal case at the time showed Home Office officials believed Chindamo posed a "genuine and present risk". They said he had been rated as the highest level of risk because of his notoriety, and would also need to be excluded from certain parts of the country.

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